The Joys of Lasers: The Crimson Trace LG-436

The “baby” Glock was born of necessity–of a sort–and was a brilliant way to thumb gun owner’s noses at the Clinton Administration. It was the Brady Bill with its included ban on magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds that gave birth to the Glock 26 (a more detailed article on the weapon is available here), which in turn caused other manufacturers to follow Glock’s example. Limited to ten rounds, why not make a quality, more concealable, handgun scaled down for ten round capacity?

Magazine size limits, of course, did nothing at all to improve firearm safety, nor did they assist in any way in stopping crime. The Brady Bill’s primary success was in running Democrats out of office, and when the law was due to sunset after a decade of accomplishing nothing but annoying the law abiding, even Democrats wouldn’t touch it with a ten round magazine.

The Glock 26 and its cousins in other calibers, however, have continued to be popular to this day. Reliable, accurate, with substantial magazine capacity for their size, the baby Glocks are, in many ways, ideal concealment handguns. But because they have no accessory rails, adding accessories–particularly laser sights–has always been somewhat difficult.

Crimson Trace LG-852

My first try at a laser sight for the Glock 26 was what eventually became Crimson Trace’s model LG-852. The laser unit provided a bright, easily seen dot, it was easy to adjust and kept its zero, and was reasonably rugged, though it did increase the width of the Glock grip somewhat. I had only two arguments with the design. The laser unit, mounted on the right hand side of the weapon, protruded into the path of the slide. When using a proper off-hand grip to cycle the slide, it was all too easy to whack the sight with the fingers. It was able to deal with this by simply slightly adjusting my grip, but still, it was an annoyance.

The other problem caused me to eventually abandon the sight for something else. The entire laser unit was attached to the Glock frame via a long pin that replaced a Glock pin. For more than a year, this arrangement worked, but eventually, the pin wore the plastic of the laser unit, and merely gripping the weapon/laser would cause the windage of the laser to noticeably shift.

I eventually replaced that unit with a Laserlyte rear sight laser, which is a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, that too eventually turned out to be less than completely workable, but that’s a story for another time.

Christmas this year brought with it two Crimson Trace LG-436 lasers for my wife and my Glock 26s. This right side view illustrates the quality and fit of the unit, which is exceptional.

A veteran of the USAF and nearly two decades of police service, I served as a patrol officer, shift supervisor, division commander, juvenile detective, detective, crime scene photographer, firearm instructor, field training officer, and SWAT officer. These days I'm a high school English teacher and professional classical singer and guitarist/bassist. I compose and arrange as well. I'm also a fencer--european and Japanese--and bicyclist.